Walking impaired

Parking time exceeded: €75 fine for senior citizen

The 87-year-old parked her Mercedes in front of a store and had to pay a fine for standing there too long.

(Bild: R. Traunmüller)

After a shopping trip with a friend, an unpleasant letter fluttered into the mailbox of a woman with a severe walking impairment. Because you are only allowed to stand in the parking lot for a maximum of three hours, the senior citizen was asked to pay.

Rosa Maria Traunmüller, who has severe walking difficulties, no longer has many leisure activities. From time to time, the 87-year-old Linz resident meets up with a friend in a shopping center south of Linz next to the Westautobahn to do a bit of shopping and have lunch and coffee in the center's own restaurant. She always parks her small Mercedes car in the disabled parking space.

Three hours parking allowed
"We've been there before, and two weeks ago we made ourselves comfortable again," says the pensioner. But this time there was a nasty surprise: some time later, a letter arrived demanding 75 euros. "The letter said that you can only park in this parking lot for three hours. If you stay longer, you have to pay," says Traunmüller.

I called and asked for a goodwill solution, which was not possible either with the store or the parking company.

Schwiegertochter von Rosa Maria Traunmüller

"Apparently it's written on the front door of the store. But you can't read everything there, you'd be standing in the way for far too long. It should at least be written on the parking lot itself so that you can really see it."

Goodwill rule for those affected
When asked by the "Krone" at "Wiener Loyal Parking", which manages parking spaces throughout Austria, they said: "For people with disabilities, we have a goodwill rule where we waive a penalty for time overruns of up to 30 minutes." The spokeswoman also pointed out that customers can extend their parking time free of charge for an unlimited period using an iPad set up in the parking lot.